Panel: Biz can learn lessons from smart home tech

FOSTER CITY, Calif.—Smart home technology can and should bleed over into the commercial market, especially for small business, according to three platform providers who spoke at the Cloud+ conference, held here.

Residential customers with smart homes see the advantages of having everything connected and those that are small business owners want those same advantages at work.

“Residential as a cloud testing ground for commercial,” was the name of the educational session. Moderated by Security Systems News editor Martha Entwistle, speakers included Alice DeBiasio, GM, cloud services for Honeywell Security and Fire; Jay Kenny, SVP of marketing for Alarm.com; and Letha McLaren, Icontrol chief marketing officer.

“The onboarding tools are the same for residential as for commercial,” said DeBiasio. “It's about getting familiar, regardless of the customer you're servicing. The messaging may slightly change.”

Alarm.com's Kenny agreed. “We look at the small business market—there are almost 30 million small businesses in the U.S. They want business intelligence. I want to know my store opened on time, closed on time, high traffic times,” Kenny said, noting that interactive technology is especially useful for multi-site management.

Icontrol has training for commercial dealers who want to learn more about smart services, said McLaren.

Privacy concerns are at the forefront, she said, but business analytics will be a driver.

Kenny said that “there are lessons to be learned from the resi market. We're applying [those] lessons to address new market opportunities.”